Currently, most backpacks ideal for motion sports are made of soft materials such as nylon, canvas, or leather. These packs have two shoulder straps and are supported to lay flat against the user's back during use. Soft material backpacks have an overall shape that is mainly dictated by the amount, shape and location of items stored therein. Such packs usually have a zipper top for opening and accessing the inside of the pack.
Prior art backpacks have several drawbacks for motion sports users, who often lean forward while wearing the backpack. For example, bicyclists and motorcyclists are "hunched" over handlebars. In this position, a pack worn on the rider's back is directly exposed to the air flowing past the rider. Further, soft material backpacks collapse around the contents therein, leaving the pack with a shape that can exhibit high wind drag and induces increased turbulence at high speeds. Further, contents inside the pack can be easily damaged when the pack is bumped into hard objects or is dropped. Moreover, sharp or irregularly shaped items contained inside the pack can protrude through or deform the pack and irritate back of the user.
Many users do not like the feel of a pack that lays flat across their back. When exercising vigorously or in hot weather, a large sweat spot forms on the user where the pack rests on the user's back. Typically, prior art backpacks lay flat against and cover most the user's back, without providing a way to cool the user's back or a way for sweat from the user's back to evaporate. In some packs, the user's sweat is absorbed by the pack's material, and transferred to the contents contained inside the pack.
Prior art packs further tend to provide insufficient weatherproofing. Even treated soft materials fail to provide long term weatherproof performance, thus allowing rainwater, sweat and dirt to contaminate the inside of the pack and the contents therein. Further, condensation from cold items placed in the pack are felt on the user's back. Lastly, prior art packs do not provide security for the pack and/or the contents therein.
There is a need for a backpack that minimizes wind resistance, protects the contents therein from external shock, prevents irregularly shaped items therein from irritating the user's back, reduces or eliminates the sweat spots that form on the user's back, provides superior weatherproofing and insulating performance, and provides security for the pack and/or contents therein, all while being comfortable for the user to wear.